Wednesday, September 16, 2015
Oddball Elmers
Continuing the COMC splurge, here are some Elmer Valo cards I added to my collection recently.
GOLD.
Classic Pacific.
Most recent card, a Topps insert commemorating Valo's time in the U.S. Army during WWII.
This one is the essence of simplicity. 1979 Diamond Greats - it has a blank back.
Valo has this card, a 1960 Leaf, and a 1960 Topps card depicting him as a Yankee, but he played in a grand total of 8 games for the Bronx Bombers in his 1800+ game career. Fantastic.
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He played 20 seasons! I had to look him up on baseball reference. The sabemetrics people would love him today. That obp is crazy high.
ReplyDeleteI think a modern comp might be someone like Brian Giles, though Giles spent more time as a starter and Valo's injury history turned him into a part time player / pinch hitter for a good chunk of his playing days.
DeleteHis Career OBP is tied with Joe DiMaggio.
Those Distinguished Service inserts are excellent. With as many players that served in WWII and Korea, I'm surprised it's not a concept used more often.
ReplyDeleteA vendor at the flea market had a big box of those Diamond Greats cards up for grabs a couple years ago. They're not the flashiest cards, but they're kinda cool in an oddball-ish kind of way.
ReplyDeleteI think it would be fun to go through a box of those.. don't know how many I would take home, but they'd be fun to dig through.
DeleteI've been buying up any of the Diamond Greats that had any connection to the Bosox. The Grandslam set from 78 is fun to collect also.
DeleteMark I hadn't seen Grand Slam cards before, those are pretty neat! There's a George Halas card from that set apparently, I might have to seek that one out.
DeleteThe same guy (Jack Wallin) made both sets
DeleteThe Grandslam sets are not blank back.
Delete